As I write this, I can hear the crunching of roof and tin being pulled away from our old dry cow barn on our dairy farm. The barn has been here for longer than I have. Shortly after we purchased our own herd, the barn became a dry pen. So, for the past 21 years, the barn has served as the place where basically all our animals calved. Soon the cement from this barn will be buried under the foundation of a new, larger freestall barn that will provide the opportunity to grow our herd. In a way it seems symbolic to me – the old barn becomes the foundation for the future.
As I watch the barn coming down, I am reminded of all the family moments we spent together in that barn – delivering baby calves in the late night hours after milking, rolling big bales across its floor to bed the ft by ft space, and providing that immediate care to both the cow and baby calf after delivery. I keep thinking of the countless colostrum feedings in that pen, how we worked together to herd the cows over to the milking parlor, and how we often relied on our boys to carry the newborn calves down to the calf barn.
In a way, what we did together in that barn served as a foundation for the future of our farm. While working in that barn, the boys learned valuable lessons about animal health, stewardship, and just having empathy for someone other than yourself. They also learned how to work together to get the job done. Sometimes those four-by-four square bales were heavy, but they became much lighter when more people helped roll them. The pen was also much easier to bed when everyone helped. They learned accountability. If one person was slacking, the others pressed him to pick up speed. If we weren’t fast enough in providing care after delivery, we often paid for it in transition and early calfhood problems.
A favorite part of my role at the Center is hosting the Cow-side Conversations podcast and interviewing dairy producers about their stories on the farm. Often, we talk about farm transition. I have interviewed producers who represented both the older generation and the younger generation on farms. What they all tell me, regardless of the generation, is that good transitions happen because the older generation figured out ways to involve the next generation early in the operation.
When your kids are smaller, that can be what we did – getting them to help with chores on the farm. For me, those times working together represent some of my best memories of their childhood – when I got to see them raw and real, just being kids. As children grow into teenagers and young adults, though, they base their decisions on what they see in their parents’ actions. Do we seem to enjoy our role on the farm? Are we treating it like a business and looking for ways to grow? Does it always seem like just another responsibility or are we presenting it as an opportunity?
I went back through the interviews from my podcast series and pulled tips that different producers shared about laying the foundation for generational transition on the farm. Here are a few of their suggestions.
- Involve them early. Rod Hissong, who is a partner at Mercer-Vu Farms, a 3,500-cow operation in Mercersburg, Pa., said, “We did a lot of character-building jobs [growing up] that didn’t seem so great at the time. But when you look back, they set the foundation for where we are today.”
- Prioritize communication. Phoebe Bitler, who is part of Vista Grande Farms, a 320-cow robotic facility in Fleetwood, Pa., said, “We’re together here all the time, and I think we have good communication. Even so, you can’t expect one generation to know what the other is thinking. If you let it up to that, your imagination might lead you to think they’re thinking something horrible and they’re not. Communication is so important.”
- Celebrate the legacy. Matt Carr, who recently took over as managing partner of his family’s 260-cow operation in Indiana, Pa., said, “My parents and my grandfather have worked here all their lives. I don’t want to seem like I’m not grateful for what they have done. So, this year, we had a theme night for harvesting to unite everyone and make it fun. My grandfather, who has passed now, always wore red suspenders, a red ball hat, and a white t-shirt. I gave everybody who was helping with harvest that same outfit to wear.”
- Share responsibilities and credit. Jared Kurtz, who is a partner at Kurtland Farms, a 350-cow robotic farm in Elverson, Pa., said, “Over the last few years, my dad and I have worked alongside each other pretty closely. I give him a lot of credit. He’s never held onto anything too tightly or closely in terms of responsibilities. If anything, he’s always tried to encourage me to do more. He’s given me a lot of liberty with decisions.”
- Get help with those tough conversations. Donny Bartch, who with his wife owns Merrimart Farms, a 400-cow dairy in Loysville, Pa., said, “As we started the transition process, none of us knew what we wanted, how it was going to happen, or how to move the assets from one generation to the next. Having a third-party moderator involved – someone unbiased and impartial to the situation – helped get everyone thinking about the tough questions and took away some of the tension to keep the conversation moving forward.”
As I am sitting here, I am reminded that the new barn will change our view of the sunrise. Instead of how the sun now rises over the fields in the valley below us, it will rise over the new freestall barn. In a way, that also seems symbolic, with that new barn offering a new day for our dairy, just as our boys will bring a new vision for the business. Just as that dry cow barn will provide a foundation for the new barn, it is up to us as the older generation to provide the foundation for that new vision the next generation will bring.
Editor’s Note: This column is written by Jayne Sebright, executive director for the Center for Dairy Excellence. It was originally published in Progressive Dairy.